Every day, Resident Advisor's editors, staff writers and freelancers work tirelessly to discover and spotlight the best new electronic music. But this constant stream is too much for any person—even a team of writers—to keep up with. Amazing records inevitably fall through the cracks; we find them months later and kick ourselves for missing them.

Our year-end roundups of 2021's best tracks, albums and mixes have largely surveyed pieces that we felt defined the year's blindsiding ups, downs and attendant uncertainties. As we close out our reflection of the last 12 months, we consider some additional records that resonated with us across these emotional vicissitudes, like claire rousay's slice-of-life ambient and Sepehr's bone-dislodging breaks, which soundtracked some of our brief yet momentous returns to the dance floor.

While we didn't get a chance to consider these records the first time around, we turn now to twenty additional releases spanning techno, house, ambient and funk that we would be remiss not to include in our highlights of the year.

- Regelbau
  Various – I Can't Complain But Sometimes I Still Do
  
  This blink-and-you-miss-it 12-inch features Erika de Casier going over a house track from core Regelbau artists Sports & Central, as well as a lush downtempo number from Hi Mount. But the one we keep revisiting is the '90s-invoking house cut from Mandee & Central. "If You Feel Like It" uses elements we've heard before—warm pads, percussive organ and a looped vocal sample—that nevertheless make for a perfect dance floor track.-Matt McDermott
  
  Listen:
  Soundcloud
- HAUS of ALTR
  Black Rave Culture - Black Rave Culture
  
  HAUS of ALTR has been one of the hottest dance music labels of the Bandcamp-focussed era, but the Black Rave Culture LP—released in May—is a curious omission within RA's pages. A supergroup comprising D.C. producers Amal, James Bangura and DJ NativeSun, the ten-track LP did what it says on the package: it took us on a thrilling trip through a varied tapestry of Black dance music, from bass-heavy techno to jungle.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- BGM Solutions
  CFCF - Memoryland
  
  On his period-piece LP, Canadian producer CFCF mixes everything good about the late '90s—trance, big beat, chart-baiting dance floor hits—in what was ultimately a highly personal concept album. While we reviewed the excellent first single off the record "Life Is Perfecto," the lengthy Memoryland warrants a deeper dive. Its stylistic variation, ambition and gleaming surfaces hearkened back to the glory days of electronica.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Hemlock
  Beneath - On Tilt
  
  A comeback for both the Hemlock label and era-defining UK producer Beneath, On Tilt takes stock of UK music from the last ten-plus years, marrying dubstep's wobble-and-thwack with the jagged leftfield shapes that have become more common within the contemporary UK dance music canon.—Andrew Ryce
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Euphoria Records
  Omni A.M. & Casey Hogan – Bunker Scraper
  
  It seems like hardly a day goes by without a prohibitively expensive tech house record being reissued. But a new, remastered version of Omni A.M.'s Bunker Scraper on Euphoria Records was surely among this year's most welcome and essential—and a paragon of North American tech house. Bunker Scraper sees the duo team up with Florida's Casey Hogan, another standout exponent of the style. In addition to their two mixes of the title track, the reissue comes with three alternate versions of "In My Time Of Flying," a veritable tech house anthem that Omni A.M. tracked in a single take during one of their live PA sets in the late '90s.—Mark Smith
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- American Dreams Records
  claire rousay - a softer focus
  
  If any ambient record captures the zeitgeist of the lockdown era, it's claire rousay's LP for American Dreams. Through a mixture of close-mic'd sounds, field recordings and orchestral drones, rousay creates an audio collage that functions as both environmental soundscape and musical narrative. Few records live up to the idea of "ambient music" like this one, which depict the artist going about their day, interspersing intimate sonic moments with sweeping synthetic brilliance.—A.R.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Ed Banger Records/Because Music
  Gaspard Augé - Escapades
  
  It felt like Justice succumbed to the law of diminishing returns after their world-conquering 2007 album Cross, but on Gaspard Augé's solo album, the French producer took another bold and ambitious journey. This time he explores cinematic synth prog that retains all the swagger of his primary outfit with Xavier de Rosnay.—A.R.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Dead Mind Records
  Enno Velthuys – A Glimpse Of Light
  
  If you are going to buy one reissue from this year, make it this one. Enno Velthuys, a Dutch underground figure who sadly passed away in 2009, recorded A Glimpse Of Light at home and released it as a cassette through the now-defunct Exart imprint in 1984. Despite its humble origins, the record's gentle drones and plaintive melodies put it on the level of ambient landmarks like Cluster & Eno and Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music for Nine Post Cards.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Mother Tongue Records
  Gerald Mitchell - The Metamorphosis Of Twookie Wonder Brown
  
  We recently looked back on Gerald Mitchell's legendary house track from the turn of the century, "Hardlife," but the UR affiliate hasn't let up since. He's put out a few incredible records lately, both via the true school Italian outfit Mother Tongue Records. Last year, he dropped a gorgeous house three-tracker as Los Hermanos. Earlier this year, he released The Metamorphosis Of Twookie Wonder Brown, two long-form, P-Funk-indebted tracks featuring Motor City mainstays Pirahnahead, Billy Love, Duminie Deporres, Mark Anthony and the Mitchell brothers. This is Detroit backyard funk of the highest order.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Offen Music/Lovers & Lollypops
  CZN - Commutator
  
  Avant-garde drummer Valentina Magaletti's explorations into leftfield dance music have been a thrilling development, from her work with the live drum dub outfit Holy Tongue to her post-punk project with Raime, Moin. CZN—her trio with fellow percussionist João Pais Filipe and producer Leon Marks—might be her most intriguing project at the moment. Their 12-inch for Vladimir Ivkovic's Offen Music comprised minimalist, longform explorations of rhythm and atmosphere. The 16-minute "On An Asset Tip" is structured like a trippy early-morning dance track, but manages to be not quite like anything you've ever heard, descending from live rhythmic seance into otherworldly ambience.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- 4evr 4wrd
  Jon Dixon – Detroit Get Down
  
  Jazz is one of the primary tributaries flowing into Detroit dance music, and this confluence is epitomized in the work of jazz keyboardist and producer Jon Dixon. Dixon studied under Detroit R&B/jazz legend Marcus Belgrave as well as Mike Banks, and his "high-tech jazz" records just keep getting better. This year, he released the Detroit Get Down EP on his own 4evr 4wrd label, and it was one of the best Detroit records of the year. The opening track, "On Your Own," features an instantly-recognizable Moodymann vocal, along with a graceful horn solo from Marcus's son Kasan, which brings the Motor City's deeply-rooted jazz and house traditions into perfect harmony.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Meakusma
  Pretty Sneaky - Pretty Sneaky
  
  Anyone who follows Hard Wax's new releases will have noticed the anonymous artist Pretty Sneaky's work. Having released a run of EPs on their own eponymous imprint followed by a debut LP for the highly-rated Mana label, this self-titled 12-inch for label-cum-festival Meakusma sums up their style: it's deceptively odd, sunny-faced yet furtive, dub-wise but rhythmically angular.—M.S.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Stroom
  Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe – Repair Techniques
  
  There are plenty of ambient-leaning electro-acoustic records being released on Bandcamp, but not all of them are created equal. Sofie Birch & Johan Carøe's Repair Techniques, released in August on Nosedrip's always-on STROOM label, came from two improvised live sessions recorded on a Roland Juno-60, a Moog Sub 37 and a Roland XP 30 in 2019. There was magic in the air during those initial sessions, and in summer 2020, the duo added pump organ, cello, clarinet and vocals. Across Repair Techniques, the synthetic and acoustic combine into a grand and varied narrative that rewards dedicated attention.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- AD 93
  Leif - 9 Airs
  
  9 Airs is an almost-ambient album that reduces the Freerotation resident's music down to an ethereal shimmer. Made from mostly acoustic instruments like guitar and low whistle, Leif manipulates the sounds he got out of these instruments—and his voice—into delicate tone poems, sometimes approaching the dance floor shapes of his past work, and other times working in patient textural exercises. Touching on recent trends in electronic music but remaining entirely in its own world, 9 Airs shows just how far Leif's gentle touch can go when it drifts away from the dance floor.—A.R.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Emotional Response
  Terra Utopia - Terra Utopia
  
  Banlieue head Benoit B put out two very good records this year, both of which are more than worthy of a shout here. But his self-titled mini-LP as Terra Utopia—the debut release from that alias—is the perfect leftfield dance record for headphones. The French producer has developed a knack for reconfiguring familiar elements in novel ways. Terra Utopia is a grab bag of watery '90s genres—ambient house, breakbeat, downtempo, jungle and even downcast vocal poptronica. Over ten tracks, the artist meticulously constructs a floating world interspersed with pensive interludes, which lend Terra Utopia a soundtrack-style scope.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Numbers
  FFT - Disturb Roqe
  
  The finest purveyor of modern don't-call-it-IDM combines the high tensile pop-lock of electro with a vacuum-sealed, airless atmosphere on his debut EP for Numbers. It's clearly the work of a producer to be reckoned with, steering a post-human force with an all-too-human ingenuity.—M.S.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Hanson Records
  Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt – Lucy & Aaron
  
  The cover of Lucy & Aaron, the debut album from respective experimental giants Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt, features creepy caricatures of both artists combining into an amorphous blob. It's an apt visual metaphor for the freakish sounds contained within. Lucy & Aaron finds an improbable middle-ground between Dilloway's noisy, loop-based style and Dalt's disembodied pop. "Demands Of Ordinary Devotion" pairs a rhythm section consisting of disused factory textures with Dalt's hair-raising vocals. With accessible melodic elements, it's identifiably a song—just not like any you've ever heard before.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Soundway
  Various Artists - Ritmo Fantasía: Balearic Spanish Synth-Pop, Boogie and House (1982-1992)
  
  Some of the best compilations lift the curtain on overlooked musical developments in a given region over a defined period of time. One of the most interesting of these studies to have emerged in recent years is Ritmo Fantasía: Balearic Spanish Synth-Pop, Boogie and House from the Berlin-based, Venezuelan DJ Trujillo. Trujillo spent a decade looking for records that span a magnificent scope of genres. The record starts in a chilled synth-funk zone with romantic vocal tracks like Beni Life's "Amor En El Cielo" before diving into humid house bangers like Bianca's "Tabu (Caribbean Dub)." Full of one-offs and private-press classics, Ritmo Fantasía is a musical education overflowing with bass-slapping, synth-soloing joy.—M.M.
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp / Apple Music / Spotify
- Self-released
  Purelink - Bliss / Swivel
  
  The obscure Chicago trio Purelink—consisting of the equally mysterious artists Concave Reflection, kindtree and Millia Rage—hasn't put out much music aside from a single on last year's Preliminaries of Silence compilation for the label Chicago Research. But they quietly self-released a two-track EP called Bliss / Swivel this past May, a recording taken from a live performance at Soapbox Music in Humboldt Park. While the A Side, "Maintain The Bliss," is a low-slung long-player redolent of early 2000s dubwise projects from Pub or Mark Ernestus, it's the B Side that steals the show. "Head On A Swivel" carries forward the former track's ambience but adds crystalline breaks that patter, shake and scuttle across gauzy pads.—Chloe Lula
  
  Listen:
  Bandcamp
- Self-released
  Sepehr - Survivalism
  
  San Francisco-born, Brooklyn-based producer Sepehr Tabari has undergone a self-proclaimed "creative renaissance" over the last three years, producing a seemingly endless string of high calibre releases forged from a hypnotic amalgam of acid, electro, late '90s drum & bass and Iranian folk music. Following his magnificent debut on Dark Entries, Tabari started his own label, Shaytoon Records—an imprint focusing on electronic sounds from the Middle East—where he released his most recent output: a mini-LP called Survivalism. The highly original collection leans heavily into minimalistic half-time breaks, each track bearing the artist's signature vocal accents and strung-out synth lines that open and close in radial curls.—C.L.
  Listen:
  Bandcamp

Various – I Can't Complain But Sometimes I Still Do

Black Rave Culture - Black Rave Culture

CFCF - Memoryland

Beneath - On Tilt

Omni A.M. & Casey Hogan – Bunker Scraper

claire rousay - a softer focus

Gaspard Augé - Escapades

Dead Mind Records

Enno Velthuys – A Glimpse Of Light

Gerald Mitchell - The Metamorphosis Of Twookie Wonder Brown

CZN - Commutator

Jon Dixon – Detroit Get Down

Pretty Sneaky - Pretty Sneaky

Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe – Repair Techniques

Leif - 9 Airs

Terra Utopia - Terra Utopia

FFT - Disturb Roqe

Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt – Lucy & Aaron

Various Artists - Ritmo Fantasía: Balearic Spanish Synth​-​Pop, Boogie and House (1982​-​1992)

Self-released

Purelink - Bliss / Swivel

Self-released

Sepehr - Survivalism

Various Artists - Ritmo Fantasía: Balearic Spanish Synth-Pop, Boogie and House (1982-1992)